During the past year, Friends of Portland Memory Garden has made significant strides toward fulfilling Our Mission:
“To enhance the lives of older people, especially individuals with memory disorders and their caregivers by maintaining the Portland Memory Garden, involving the larger community, and providing therapeutic and educational activities.”
Here are some highlights from the work we accomplished in 2025.
Maintaining the Garden
Contractors and volunteers were busy in the garden with ongoing seasonal maintenance, including weeding, mulching, pruning, leaf clean up, and refreshing plantings around the garden.
We removed massive blackberry brambles from outside of fence and interior beds, re-graveled the pathway to the restroom, and coordinated tree pruning with Urban Forestry Dept.
In the spring and fall, we planted several flats of annuals provided by PP&R. In addition to our bi-monthly gardening sessions, we hosted volunteer work parties with two organizations—Hands On and Walmart Pharmacy Managers.
Strengthening Relationships
Over the last year, we have strengthened many of our strategic partnerships and built new relationships with other Portland parks and related organizations
We have enhanced our working relationship with PP&R to include tree pruning, picnic table repair, security issues, graffiti removal, tree replacement, key management, debris removal, lawn maintenance. We have also developed a working relationship with leadership of Ed Benedict Community Garden
We expanded our partnerships with Legacy Health, Portland Nursery, La Provence, and Leupold + Stevens, and built new relationships with Portland Parks Alliance, subgroups of other Friends organizations, other PP&R gardens, and community leaders.
Expanding our Outreach
With the help of the Pogust Marketing and Communications group, we refreshed our branding, website, social media, and marketing strategy to reflect the vibrant energy that surrounds the Portland Memory Garden.
We have an updated our logo, streamlined our newsletter template, created flyers, printed news business cards, made letterheads, and a huge banner to hang at events. We even have a brand new website to help show off the garden, upcoming events, and all of our work as an organization
We’ve initiated a new mailing list system with Mailchimp and have improved, corrected, and expanded our contact list. We continued our established quarterly newsletters and initiated a new quarterly email to senior living Activity Directors. We also produced a new welcome video for use in presentations and our website
In terms of social media, you can now follow us on facebook and instagram so that you never miss an update or event. Find us @portlanmemorygarden
Building Community
Over the course of 2025, FPMG hosted many wonderful events in the garden and larger community.
Our first annual National Grandparent’s Day celebration in September and our 23rd Anniversary Party in June were roaring successes. We also began two new programs that will continue in 2026—The OSU Master Gardener(TM) Workshops and our Music in the Garden series.
We held an orientation meeting at Laurelhurst Village to introduce senior living Activity Directors to the garden, hosted several groups from senior facilities for Summer Program nature-based activities, and conducted a tour and nature session for Oregon Gerontology Association
We’ve also introduced three new board members to the Friends of the Portland Memory Garden team. We extend a warm welcome to Dan Pogust, Dylan McCann, and Lynda Meeder.
Overall, 2025 was a wonderful and productive year for the garden and everyone involved. Thank you for being a part of our mission and helping us keep the garden thriving. We’re looking forward to even more events and programs in 2026 and continuing to strengthen the community that surrounds the garden. We hope you get the chance to visit us soon.